{"id":597,"date":"2010-07-08T03:38:00","date_gmt":"2010-07-08T03:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/2010\/07\/supermen-of-malegaon-2.html"},"modified":"2011-06-17T21:17:15","modified_gmt":"2011-06-17T21:17:15","slug":"supermen-of-malegaon-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/2010\/07\/supermen-of-malegaon-2.html","title":{"rendered":"Supermen of Malegaon"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Supermen<\/a>\"\"Year : 2008<\/b>
Genre : Documentary<\/b>
Running time : 79 minutes<\/b>
Director : Faiza Ahmad Khan<\/b>
Actors : Shaikh Nasir, Akram Khan, Farogh Jafri, Shafiq, Shakeel Bharati<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cSupermen of Malegaon\u201d is a film about the making of another film \u201cMalegaon ka Superman\u201d. Yes, it is not just the Yash Chopras and the Karan Johars<\/a> with their vast resources who have the desire to make films. It is also an enthusiast in the small town of Malegaon who wishes to see his dreams come alive on celluloid. Having made several small shorts on a next to nil budget, one of them being a spoof on Sholay<\/a> called \u201cMalegaon ke Sholay\u201d, self-taught filmmaker Shaikh Nasir is set to attempt his next ambitious project. This time, inspired by Hollywood, it is a spoof on Superman. Faiza Ahmad Khan, the creator of this documentary, chronicles his efforts.<\/p>\n

This is great for us, because “Supermen of Malegaon” is a treat to watch. Khan documents the film making effort \u2013 true, but more importantly she gives us an insight into the passion that drives wedding videographer Nasir to make a film with his meager budget. Nasir\u2019s film, meant to be a parody, takes it\u2019s cues from Bollywood, which means that it has a hero, heroine and a villain, complete with romance, fight sequences and a song. The hero, because he is Superman has a red-and-blue costume with boxers and cape, stitched by the village tailor. Emblazoned on his chest is a bold M for Malegaon. The hero is played by scrawny powerloom worker Shafique, and the heroine is a non-local actress, because the men of Malegaon won\u2019t let their women work outside the home.<\/p>\n

Malegaon is a typical Indian small-town \u2013 dusty streets, narrow unpaved roads, poverty writ large on the faces of the children that gather to watch the shoot. A textile producing center with powerloom mills, it offers little in the way of entertainment, but is very fond of Bollywood. Little shops derive titles from Hindi blockbusters and kids name hero and heroines by heart. Nasir\u2019s crew is a motley bunch, piecing together the storyline for their film with audience titillating \u201chooks\u201d like a bomb blast, but adapting it to Indian surroundings. Thus Superman suffers from pollution induced asthma, and the villain is the King of Thu-thu Gutka (tobacco).<\/p>\n

Nasir\u2019s film also has stunts, and Superman flying through the air. To achieve these he, along with using techniques like chroma key technology<\/a> also makes use of rickshaws, trucks (the beloved \u201cpublic carrier\u201d of Indian roads) and manpower. Thus we have Superman aka Shafiq, flying through the air in front of a green screen, his body balanced on narrow wooden beams that run through his costume, the whole contraption supported on a rickshaw cart and a bunch of willing hands.<\/p>\n

While on the surface this film is light-hearted and slap-sticky, it has undertones which show us the lives of the village folk, the poverty and the quiet desperation of it\u2019s people. While Nasir won\u2019t let his younger brother into film-making because he fears that it will turn him into a swagger filled hero with no trade, and is content to restrict his talents to Malegaon, his scriptwriter Farogh and soundman Akram dream of making it big in Mumbai. This documentary might not be a laughter fest, but it does carry along on an upbeat note, chiefly because of it\u2019s people \u2013 the passionate and determined Nasir, the hollow-cheeked, frail-looking Shafiq wanting to act like Amitabh Bachchan<\/a>, the poet Farogh and the marvelously dramatic Akram. Quite inspiring.<\/p>\n

The film itself has a \u201chandheld\u201d feel, as though Khan went from person to person asking questions, probing beneath the surface. The humor like the pathos is an undercurrent, and derives from the often quirky situations Nasir faces while shooting the film to his satisfaction.<\/p>\n

This documentary ends with the completion and premiere of \u201cMalegaon ka Superman\u201d at Nasir\u2019s old video parlor. It is received with humongous applause by the village people, a fact that leaves Nasir smiling and excited. And this film, the charming documentary that chronicles the making of \u201cMalegaon ka Superman\u201d has been applauded by the rest of the world. \u201cSupermen of Malegaon\u201d has made the Festival rounds garnering for itself many awards, and has finally hit the theaters in the US. It is distributed by FilmKaravan<\/a>. <\/p>\n

A very interesting watch, I highly recommend it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Year : 2008Genre : DocumentaryRunning time : 79 minutesDirector : Faiza Ahmad KhanActors : Shaikh Nasir, Akram Khan, Farogh Jafri, Shafiq, Shakeel Bharati \u201cSupermen of Malegaon\u201d is a film about the making of another film \u201cMalegaon ka Superman\u201d. Yes, it … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"twitter_17000648_17000648":"","facebook_10233691416821117_190635594420624":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[78,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-documentary","category-recommended"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"post-thumbnail":false,"sow-carousel-default":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"amodini","author_link":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/author\/admin"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Year : 2008Genre : DocumentaryRunning time : 79 minutesDirector : Faiza Ahmad KhanActors : Shaikh Nasir, Akram Khan, Farogh Jafri, Shafiq, Shakeel Bharati \u201cSupermen of Malegaon\u201d is a film about the making of another film \u201cMalegaon ka Superman\u201d. Yes, it … Continue reading →","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p45CAb-9D","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=597"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2267,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597\/revisions\/2267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}